New Programming Language and Runtime System

新的编程语言和运行时系统

• 批准号: 537903-2018
• 负责人: Buhr, Peter
• 金额: $ 8.87万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=720387
• 关键词: New; Programming; Language; Runtime; System

This research focuses on systems programming-languages, able to construct low-level high-performance applications, like operating systems, databases, and network systems, forming the core of all software development. The C programming language is a systems language providing the foundational technology for modern computing with billions of lines of code implementing small and large systems, e.g., Linux, Windows. Nevertheless, C, standardized 30 years ago, lacks features that make programming in modern languages safer and more productive. The research goal is to create an extension of C, called Cforall, providing modern safety and productivity features, while still ensuring backwards compatibility with C and its programmers. Specifically, Cforall is designed to have an orthogonal feature-set based closely on the C programming paradigm (non-object-oriented) and these features can be added incrementally to an existing C code-base, allowing programmers to learn Cforall on an as-needed basis, preserving investment in existing code and employees. Traditional and new programming languages have different syntax and semantics from C, only interoperate indirectly with C, and are not systems languages because of managed memory (ownership/garbage collection). To accomplish the research goal, this grant will continue development of Cforall, which is only at the proof-of-concept (alpha) stage. Continued development involves fleshing out Cforall to the beta stage by completing several design and implementation objectives, culminating in multiple staged releases to researchers and educators. These objectives include efficiently implementing the Cforall type-system because of complex type-unification and extensions for user-defined conversions, virtual pointers, more concurrent types, and advanced exceptions, arrays, strings and collections, none of which exist in C. The result of this project is a language that is backwards compatible with both C code and programmer intuition, yet adds modern language features and fixes many well-known C problems. Given the continuing vitality of the C ecosystem, there is significant impetus for a modern transformation of C.

该研究的重点是系统编程语言，能够构建低级别的高性能应用程序，如操作系统，数据库和网络系统，形成所有软件开发的核心。C编程语言是一种系统语言，为现代计算提供了基础技术，具有数十亿行代码，实现了小型和大型系统，例如，Linux、Windows。 然而，30年前标准化的C缺乏使现代语言编程更安全和更高效的功能。研究目标是创建一个名为Cforall的C扩展，提供现代安全和生产力功能，同时仍然确保与C及其程序员的向后兼容性。具体来说，Cforall的设计是基于C编程范式（非面向对象）的正交功能集，这些功能可以增量地添加到现有的C代码库中，允许程序员根据需要学习Cforall，保留对现有代码和员工的投资。传统和新的编程语言与C语言有不同的语法和语义，只是间接地与C语言互操作，并且由于托管内存（所有权/垃圾收集）而不是系统语言。为了实现研究目标，这笔赠款将继续开发Cforall，这只是在概念验证（alpha）阶段。持续开发涉及通过完成多个设计和实现目标来充实Cforall到测试阶段，最终向研究人员和教育工作者进行多个阶段发布。这些目标包括有效地实现Cforall类型系统，因为复杂的类型统一和扩展用户定义的转换，虚拟指针，更多的并发类型，以及高级异常，数组，字符串和集合，这些都不存在于C中。该项目的结果是一种向后兼容C代码和程序员直觉的语言，但添加了现代语言功能并修复了许多众所周知的C问题。鉴于C生态系统的持续活力，C的现代转型具有重要的推动力。